The workspace includes access to diverse data sources, unique research capabilities for analytics such as domain models, text analytics and natural language processing capabilities derived from Watson, a powerful hardware and software infrastructure, and broad domain expertise including biology, medicine, finance, weather modeling, mathematics, computer science and information technology. This combination reduces time to insight resulting in business impact – cost savings, revenue generation and scientific impact – ahead of the traditional pace of discovery.

The notion of Moore’s Law for Big Data has less to do with how fast data is growing, and more with how many connections one can make with that data, and how fast those connections are growing. While companies could utilize data scientists to analyze their own information, they may miss insights that can only be found by bringing their understanding together with other experts, data sources, and tools to create different context and discover new value in their Big Data.

IBM and Deutsche Telekom recently announced a collaboration to provide the IBM MobileFirst platform in the cloud to small and medium sized (SMB) customers in Europe. Deutsche Telekom’s developer platform - Developer Garden - has launched the new cloud service, Developer Garden powered IBM Worklight, which allows developers to cost-effectively and quickly create apps for all mobile platforms and bring them to market faster than ever before.

As mobile apps proliferate, the cloud has emerged as a key enabler of this growth. Cloud delivery of mobile apps accelerates time to value and speed to market, making availability of new capabilities instantaneous. A recent study from IBM revealed that while only 24 percent of telecom survey respondents currently use cloud for sweeping innovation, in two years more than half (57 percent) of them plan to rely on cloud for business model innovation.

By offering IBM Worklight on the Deutsche Telekom cloud via Developer Garden, SMBs that traditionally may not have the resources to obtain enterprise-grade mobile tools will now be able to easily consume these technologies as a service without long term investment or planning.

E.ON and IBM Deliver Innovative Service Offerings to Customers with New Smart Energy Solutions

IBM recently announced that it has been selected by E.ON Metering to operate its Smart Metering IT infrastructure in a private cloud. The new platform will improve the integration of renewable and decentralized energy sources, while also allowing E.ON to deliver personalized services that will put customers in better control of energy usage.

E.ON Metering, a company of E.ON, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies, will use IBM's Intelligent Energy Service Enablement Platform (IESEP) to improve the deployment and management of smart meters, simplify the integration of renewables, and other innovative services, while at the same time maintaining a high level of customer service.

Under this agreement E.ON will migrate and host the infrastructure in a private cloud using IBM SmartCloud, at one of IBM's Data Centers in Germany. At the same time, the new platform will be upgraded with new analytics and management tools based on IBM Software that will allow E.ON to provide higher-value-added data services for customers. For example, customers will have the ability to view their usage profiles for information about time-of-use-rates and changes in use patterns that can be compared with historical data.

Google, IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan recently announced plans to form the OpenPOWER Consortium – an open development alliance based on IBM's POWER microprocessor architecture. The Consortium intends to build advanced server, networking, storage and GPU-acceleration technology aimed at delivering more choice, control and flexibility to developers of next-generation, hyperscale and cloud data centers.

The move makes POWER hardware and software available to open development for the first time as well as making POWER IP licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform. The consortium will offer open-source POWER firmware, the software that controls basic chip functions. By doing this, IBM and the consortium can offer unprecedented customization in creating new styles of server hardware for a variety of computing workloads.

Google, IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan recently announced plans to form the OpenPOWER Consortium – an open development alliance based on IBM's POWER microprocessor architecture. The Consortium intends to build advanced server, networking, storage and GPU-acceleration technology aimed at delivering more choice, control and flexibility to developers of next-generation, hyperscale and cloud data centers.

The move makes POWER hardware and software available to open development for the first time as well as making POWER IP licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform. The consortium will offer open-source POWER firmware, the software that controls basic chip functions. By doing this, IBM and the consortium can offer unprecedented customization in creating new styles of server hardware for a variety of computing workloads.

Companies all around the world are using data and business analytics to inform their interactions. Analytics has helped some companies increase online revenue by up to 50%. It's a Smarter Planet - every decision maker can be a smarter one. Let's build a Smarter Planet. Learn more at http://ibm.co/10vCQQK

European Data Center Will Give Businesses Opportunity
to Follow Customers such as Shanks that are Benefiting from Cloud Based Social
Business Solutions Today

IBM recently announced that
it will be extending its industry leadership with the opening of a
European-based IBM SmartCloud for Social
Business Data
Center. The move aims to
help business leaders, such as chief information officers (CIO), chief
marketing officers (CMO), and chief human resource officers (CHRO), begin their
organization's transformation with the adoption of social business
technology.

Based in Germany and serving
the needs of customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the new facility
will help businesses follow the lead of customers such as Arnold Clark, Codorniu, Shanks,
Centrax TCL
and Development Alternatives Inc (DAI) who are
using cloud-based social business offerings to build the 21st Century
workforces that can more efficiently share knowledge to spark innovation and
deliver their customers flawless
experiences.

IBM recently announced a
definitive agreement to acquire the software portfolio of Star Analytics Inc.,
a privately held business analytics company headquartered in Redwood City, California.
Financial terms were not disclosed.

The combination of IBM and
Star Analytics software will further advance IBM's business analytics
initiatives, allowing organizations to gain faster access and real-time insight
into specialized data sources. With growing challenges in gaining a more
complete view into varying types of data, companies are increasingly looking
for ways to automate and provide business users with self-service access to
critical information.

Star Analytics software
addresses a rising challenge for organizations -- helping to automatically
integrate essential information, reporting applications and business
intelligence tools across their enterprises, on premise or from cloud computing
environments. The software removes typical custom coding for specialized
sources that is hard to maintain. It also eliminates manual
processes that are cumbersome and time consuming.

IBM recently announced it has entered into a
definitive agreement to acquire Texas Memory Systems (TMS), a leading developer
of high-performance flash memory solutions. TMS is a privately held company
based in Houston, Texas. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed.

Founded in 1978, TMS designs and sells
high-performance solid state storage solutions. Unlike hard disk drives that
rely on spinning disks and robotic arms, solid state systems are high-speed
data storage solutions based on Flash or RAM memory that can provide
significantly faster throughput and data access while consuming less power.

TMS offers its solid state solutions as the RamSan
family of shared rackmount systems and Peripheral Component Interconnect
Express (PCIe) cards. The products are designed to help companies improve
performance and reduce server sprawl, power consumption, cooling, and floor
space requirements, all of which in turn can help clients save money, improve
performance and invest more in innovation.

Vestas Wind Systems turn to IBM Big Data

Danish energy company Vestas Wind Systems will use IBM
big data analytics software and powerful IBM systems to improve wind turbine
placement for optimal energy output. Turbine placement is a major challenge for
the renewable energy industry, and Vestas expects to accelerate the adoption of
wind energy internationally and expand its business into new markets by
overcoming this challenge.

The final solution cut the processing time from 3
weeks to 15 minutes and cut server energy consumption by 40%.

Vestas is addressing the issue of turbine placement by using IBM BigInsights
software and an IBM "Firestorm" supercomputer to analyze petabytes of
structured and unstructured data such as weather reports, moon and tidal
phases, geospatial and sensor data, satellite images, deforestation maps, and
weather modeling research to pinpoint installation. The analysis, which used to
take weeks, can now be done in less than one hour.